Employees’ Outlook Declining

A study by Survey Monkey indicated that employees’ opinions of growth opportunities in their jobs are not good. The results were inversely proportionate to age: 28 percent of Gen Z respondents indicated that they were satisfied with their current situation, compared with 38 percent of Millennials and 47 percent of Gen X-ers. The economy has been more employee-friendly as it recovers from COVID and the recession; but the pendulum is moving back more toward employers, and benefits and salary budgets are not increasing as fast as they have been. A separate survey indicated that training budgets have also shrunk. Another factor is the increasing application of AI for more routine tasks, generally in lower-level positions, which is reducing employment prospects in some disciplines. 

An interesting development encompassing the foregoing is that an increasing number of Gen Z-ers are moving into blue-collar occupations, where there is little to no threat from AI.